…love flies out the window.”

That wonderful hand-me-down wisdom was given me by my mother, who survived the 1930’s Depression, and I am now sharing it with you. Heed it well, as it has within it a cautionary lesson that must be learned in these days of The Great Recession.

We have a lot to lament. Considerable press and Internet-time is taken up with the devastation brought upon all of us by the criminal excesses of Wall Street.  The billions of dollars lost are added up by the talking heads, a weekly number of foreclosures are reported on CNN and Fox, and daily job losses are tallied.

But the cost that is never measured, as it is immeasurable, is the loss of love.

This can be in the form of a husband and wife who see their marriage disintegrate, of business partners sifting through the ashes of their failed enterprise, or people getting their “pink” slips.  But, the worst loss of all is our sense of self-love and self-respect.

After all, who can love a Loser?  Well, I can – and you can, too.

Take a deep breath and introduce perspective and wisdom into your thinking.  What we will discover is that our problems do not lie in the conditions in which we find ourselves.  Our problems lie in the way we think about the condition in which we find ourselves.

You have heard of the Great Depression, of course.  Somehow, somewhere, the majority of these people found the will to survive and rebuild their lives and homes and family. In the 1930’s, unemployment was as high as 40% in some neighborhoods and 25% overall.  Many people suffered in silence, ashamed of their poverty.  People took in boarders, some became live-in domestics, young ones were sent away to live with relatives or even total strangers. Anything to survive.

You and I – literally – would not be here if it had not been for that quality of hope and steadfastness.  

Back then, married women were not allowed to teach.  People sold apples on the street.  There were no governmental protections, such as social security and medical assistance… (the ones being protested by Tea-Baggers today). Coal was so expensive that people burned corn, which sold for only 13 cents per bushel.  Unemployed fathers saw children hired for sub-standard wages and as many as 2.25 million boys ages 10-18 worked in factories, canneries, mines and on farms.

What sustained our grandparents, and their parents, during the depression?  Their family, and the love of others, was prized over anything else.  How are you doing on that front?

Hating your circumstances – or yourself for being in them – is not being in touch with the greater lesson.  Perhaps you could use some spiritual perspective on all this.  Remember, the bible says “…and it came to pass.” It doesn’t say “…and it came to stay.”

So, when the wolf walks in your front door, walk him through to the back door and return to tend to the people you love and who love you.  You – and they – are treasures beyond compare that no amount of “bills” can stack up against or outweigh.   Do you need any greater reason to survive…and thrive?